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VC Thunderdome: Seed Oregon

Rick Turoczy on August 13, 2007

You’ve got good ideas. You’ve got elegant code. And you’ve got the next killer app. But what you could really use is some capital to make a real go of it.

That’s where funding comes into play. Oregon Entrepreneur Network understands.

So rather than make you come right out and beg, they have their own little Thunderdome for funding called Seed Oregon:

Nine presenting companies will be selected to compete in the Seed Oregon tournament. Each will have 10 minutes to present their concept to the PubTalk audience, followed by a 10 minute Q&A session. Three companies will compete at each of the the preliminary rounds, with the audience voting for the winning presentations to move to the championship round. The Angel Oregon Selection Committee will serve as judges for the championship round.

The competition is restricted to companies in the Portland metropolitan area who are currently seeking a seed round that is less than $2 million.

If you match those requirements and you’re interested in a little “two man enter one man leave,” consider sending in an application. The first round entry deadline is August 31, 2007.

Gnomedex 2007: Portland Perspective

Rick Turoczy on August 13, 2007

Every summer, a bevy of bloggers journey to Seattle for Gnomedex. And given Portland’s relatively close proximity to Seattle, a few of the Portland crew generally make the jaunt.

So last week, both Marshall Kirkpatrick and Josh Bancroft kept us up-to-date on the goings-on via Twitter. Alex Williams also provided some play-by-play from Portland, while watching the live feed.

While Gnomedex 2007 will likely be remembered for Mahalo-gate, Marshall proves that there was actually other content associated with the event, as shown in his SplashCast Gnomedex recap channel.

If you’re a Portlander who attended, by all means link up your recaps in the comments.

[August 15, 2007 update] Jason Harris just published a recap, as well.

JanRain announces DietPibb 0.3

Rick Turoczy on August 13, 2007

If you use the Pibb messaging platform from Portland’s JanRain and happen to work on a Mac, you’ve got a new tool at your disposal.

DietPibb, developed by Citizen Agency’s Chris Messina, extends the functionality of the Pibb platform by allowing you to run Pibb as a desktop app.

Pibb combines the best features of instant messenger, chat, email, and bulletin boards. For more information on Pibb, please visit pibb.com.

Portland Internet Astronauts to meet August 16

Rick Turoczy on August 13, 2007

Portland Internet Astronauts was founded by Darius A. Monsef IV, who is probably best know for COLOURlovers. It’s purpose? To bring together local Portland online entrepreneurs to share ideas:

This is a group for the creative people building and running online start-ups. It is a group to get together to talk about our new ideas, share development & design resource and tips, and talk about the latest developments in web technology.

The next Portland Internet Astronauts get together will be held August 16 at 7 PM in the Urban Grind in the Pearl. Seating is limited to 20 attendees. To RSVP or get more information, visit the group’s Meetup page.

Rumor: Goboz looking to take on CitySearch

Rick Turoczy on August 12, 2007

So, we’ve already touched on the “more bars per capita” statistic, we might as well hit the “more restaurants per capita” statistic, too. As we all know, in Portland, finding somewhere to eat can be as problematic as, well, finding a happy hour.

Enter Goboz.

While there’s not much to the Goboz site at this point, a quick glance at the backend shows that they’re targeting CitySearch and Portland retail and professional services.

The code contains a bevy of keywords—including “restraunt” and “automitive”—and a table-based layout. So, other than that, I have nothing.

The site is currently slated to launch September 6, at which point I’ll bring you a full scoop. In the meantime, if someone from Goboz or their communications team wants to drop me a line to provide more details, please feel free.

(Via a tip from PDX Companies)

UrbanDrinks improves profile pages

Rick Turoczy on August 12, 2007

Web applications are designed to solve problems. And when you live in a town like Portland—where there are reportedly more bars per capita than any other town in the nation—then finding a happy hour is a problem.

Well, there are a number of folks in town trying to solve that problem.

One of the teams taking on that challenge, UrbanDrinks, has recently announced an upgrade to its profile pages. And they promise more to come, including adding “social network” features you’ve come to expect.

UrbanDrinks.com is the work of a small group of friends who have made it their mission to provide you with the most up-to-date happy hour information.

Related Portland sites: Unthirsty

(Hat tip to PDX Pipeline)

Viva la Platial

Rick Turoczy on August 10, 2007

Heading to Mexico in the next few weeks? If not, need an excuse?

The Platial team has left Portland, en masse, with plans to do some thinking, building, and learning in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. If you happen to be in the neighborhood, you’ve been invited to drop by.

We scored a fantastic house in San Miguel from friends from which to start this experiment. It’s hard to tell if your indoors or outdoors in every room of the house. Fountains, tilework and patios abound. The experiment goes something like this; If we are building a global resource doesn’t it make sense to be untethered and actively collaborate with developers, artists, thinkers and users around the world? The challenge is to do this cheaply, effectively and with visible advancement and development.

Platial enables anyone to find, create and use meaningful maps of Places that matter to them. It was created with the hope of connecting people, neighborhoods, cities and countries through a citizen-driven common context that goes beyond geopolitical boundaries.

Consider San Miguel officially connected.

Jive Software unveils “Adopt a Customer” program

Rick Turoczy on August 10, 2007

As part of an effort to better understand and interact with its customer base, the folks at Jive Software have implemented an “Adopt a Customer” program.

The idea is that one of the best ways to get great reference customers is to have each member of the management team “adopt” a customer. This means they have to visit them, listen to their needs, help plan their rollout, understand the metrics they’re tracking, and basically act as a free implementation consultant to guide them towards a successful rollout. In return, we learn about what it takes to make our product successful at a ground level, and hopefully we get a solid case study.

Jive Software develops award-winning collaboration software that improves a company’s productivity through open collaboration among employees, partners and customers. In addition, they have become quite the corporate citizens, actively volunteering to host a number of local events, including a recent impromptu gathering when Scoble was in town.

StepChange hints at new widget under development

Rick Turoczy on August 10, 2007

Nothing to see here. Yet. But, StepChange has announced that they have a new widget under development that should be available within the next few weeks.

Speaking of, we’ve got a widget coming out that we built in conjunction with Offermatica in a few weeks. Check out CLIQin if you want to get on the beta list.

StepChange is a product strategy, design and development firm, based in Portland, that helps companies “leverage the latest market engagement strategies and internet technologies to create new products and growth opportunities. “

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